ISLAMABAD, June 14: The government has established an anti- human trafficking unit at the interior ministry to monitor human trafficking cases and provide protection to the victims, official sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

The sources said a similar unit had already been established in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters but the agency did not provide data on human traffickers, cases and victims to the ministry.

The unit will also provide awareness to a cross-section of society about the menace of human trafficking. In this connection, the interior ministry is organising a seminar on June 19 in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the topic of “Empowering local communities for elimination of human trafficking”.

“The unit has been formed in the ministry for the first time; therefore, staff is required to run it,” the ministry’s Deputy Secretary Amna Imran Khan, who is in charge of the unit, said.

Meanwhile, official sources said Pakistan had been facing a significant internal trafficking problem reportedly involving thousands of women and children trafficked from rural areas and sold to settle debts and disputes or forced into sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, or marriage.

Unconfirmed estimates of Pakistani victims of bonded labour in the brick, glass, carpet and fishing industries are in the millions.

The sources said women and children from Bangladesh, India, Burma, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan were also trafficked to Pakistan for sexual exploitation. In addition, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepalese and Burmese women were trafficked through Pakistan to the Gulf countries or Greece.

The government, they said, did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. However, it is making significant efforts to do so.

They said the government formulated a national plan of action to combat trafficking in persons, approved a special cell within the ministry to coordinate its anti-trafficking response, trained police officers, attorneys and judges on anti-trafficking measures and made progress in investigating trafficking cases. The ministry with the assistance of International Organisation for Migration also opened a shelter for trafficking victims.

Instead of these measures, the government has so far failed to curb internal trafficking for sexual exploitation.